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There are certainly much worse places than what you've found. I would recommend riding the Brown line to work during the AM rush and also PM back up north if work is in the Loop, and I might give some thought to the range of dining options that might make Lincoln Square or Roscoe Village more to your liking, but overall if both place are in your budget and you are OK with the commute / distance to daycare / shoping / recreation both areas are well liked by those who drove single family prices to stratospheric levels...

Quote:

Originally Posted by linenlili

Hi! Everyone!
So I guess this has become a suburb vs city for kids thing, but, I'm going to update you people on where I am now.
I looked at apartments today. 1 in Roscoe Village and another in Lincoln Square. I ended up really liking the one in Roscoe Village, 2 bedroom, 1 bath, hardwood floors, balcony- 2 blocks to the Brown Line and the elementary school is Bell.
What do you think?

Hi! Everyone!
So I guess this has become a suburb vs city for kids thing, but, I'm going to update you people on where I am now.
I looked at apartments today. 1 in Roscoe Village and another in Lincoln Square. I ended up really liking the one in Roscoe Village, 2 bedroom, 1 bath, hardwood floors, balcony- 2 blocks to the Brown Line and the elementary school is Bell.
What do you think?

I live a mile west of Roscoe Village, I've never heard of anyone unhappy with that neighborhood, it's a nice compromise of family-friendly and being in the heart of the North Side in terms of nightlife and restaurants. Good luck!

I have a 3-year old and we moved to Boystown about 6 month months ago. We absolutely love it here. There are lots of kids around and tons of playgrounds. My advise would be to look at East Lakeview and Lincoln Park. Nettelhorst, Alcott, and Lincoln Park Elementary are some of the best neighborhood public schools in the city. Both neighborhoods are very safe, extremely walkable (we don't have a car), and provide easy access to the Lake. Finding a 2 bedroom for around $1500 is tough in the school attendance boundaries, but we did it. If you are Ok with a one bedroom, then you'll have lots of choices.
I think kid-friendly means different things for different people. I want my kid to grow up in a diverse urban environment with lots of activities nearby. A place like Boystown is plenty kid-friendly to me.

My husband and I live in the western suburbs of Glendale Heights. Actually, we just moved into another house, right around the corner from our old house. We've been here for 15 years, and in fact, my husband and I like to do things like take nice long walks at night, down the Great Western Trail to the video store, which we often do around midnight. We're on a first name basis with most of our neighbors and never had any problems. I have no doubt that the very worse town or village in Dupage county is still more problem and crime free than the best neighborhoods in the city of Chicago.

Some don't like Glendale Heights? We love it here, and this is why.

We can wave to the bus stop from our kitchen window, which takes you directly from our house, to the train station in Glen Ellyn in less than 5 minutes, and you can track the exact location of that bus on your cell phone, so we're never standing outside for more than 1 minute. The train to downtown Chicago always shows up within 2-3 minutes of the time the bus drops you off at the station, and there's always a bus waiting at that train station at night, to take us directly home, and drops us right at at the end of our driveway. In fact, in bad weather, the driver usually pulls into our driveway, so we don't have to walk the 20 feet to our back door. The train to downtown Chicago takes roughly 40 minutes, less with express trains during rush hour.

We really like the fact that there's an excellent Polish deli, a Mexican supermarket, dollar store and Menards, along with our bank, dentist, and medical offices, all within 3 minutes walking distance of our house.

Our huge, 4 bedroom, 3 bath brick home is so well insulated, that we pay less in utilities than we did in the tiny, 900 square foot house we recently moved from. To give you an idea of the size of our fully fenced in backyard, well, we could put in a regulation sized football field in it, and still have enough room left over to hold a 20 truck tailgate party. No mortage. In this bad economy, we bought this house in Glendale Heights for under $100,000, and we paid cash. No we don't make that much. The house we recently moved from, also in Glendale Heights, was also pretty cheap, so we were able to pay it off in 5 years and are now renting it out. Our new house represents what we saved by buying here.

Yes, this house was a foreclosure that we bought from the bank, and yes, it needed some work, including a kitchen, which we bought brand-new from a cabinet liquidation sale for $4,000. And that price not only included granite countertops, sink, dishwasher and solid cherry cabinets, but a brand new Wolf stove and Sub-Zero refrigerator to boot! The only other thing the house really needed was a railing for the main staircase, and my husband decided to give building it himself a shot, and it came out stunning gorgeous. The cost of materials was approx. $600, and that was for the solid oak and wrought iron. Just beautiful.

If you're planning on being a stay at home mom, you should have plenty of time to shop for those deals too. And you know, when you get those deals and do the work yourself, you end up with a place you can truely call home.

My husband and I live in the western suburbs of Glendale Heights. Actually, we just moved into another house, right around the corner from our old house. We've been here for 15 years, and in fact, my husband and I like to do things like take nice long walks at night, down the Great Western Trail to the video store, which we often do around midnight. We're on a first name basis with most of our neighbors and never had any problems. I have no doubt that the very worse town or village in Dupage county is still more problem and crime free than the best neighborhoods in the city of Chicago.

Some don't like Glendale Heights? We love it here, and this is why.

We can wave to the bus stop from our kitchen window, which takes you directly from our house, to the train station in Glen Ellyn in less than 5 minutes, and you can track the exact location of that bus on your cell phone, so we're never standing outside for more than 1 minute. The train to downtown Chicago always shows up within 2-3 minutes of the time the bus drops you off at the station, and there's always a bus waiting at that train station at night, to take us directly home, and drops us right at at the end of our driveway. In fact, in bad weather, the driver usually pulls into our driveway, so we don't have to walk the 20 feet to our back door. The train to downtown Chicago takes roughly 40 minutes, less with express trains during rush hour.

We really like the fact that there's an excellent Polish deli, a Mexican supermarket, dollar store and Menards, along with our bank, dentist, and medical offices, all within 3 minutes walking distance of our house.

Our huge, 4 bedroom, 3 bath brick home is so well insulated, that we pay less in utilities than we did in the tiny, 900 square foot house we recently moved from. To give you an idea of the size of our fully fenced in backyard, well, we could put in a regulation sized football field in it, and still have enough room left over to hold a 20 truck tailgate party. No mortage. In this bad economy, we bought this house in Glendale Heights for under $100,000, and we paid cash. No we don't make that much. The house we recently moved from, also in Glendale Heights, was also pretty cheap, so we were able to pay it off in 5 years and are now renting it out. Our new house represents what we saved by buying here.

Yes, this house was a foreclosure that we bought from the bank, and yes, it needed some work, including a kitchen, which we bought brand-new from a cabinet liquidation sale for $4,000. And that price not only included granite countertops, sink, dishwasher and solid cherry cabinets, but a brand new Wolf stove and Sub-Zero refrigerator to boot! The only other thing the house really needed was a railing for the main staircase, and my husband decided to give building it himself a shot, and it came out stunning gorgeous. The cost of materials was approx. $600, and that was for the solid oak and wrought iron. Just beautiful.

If you're planning on being a stay at home mom, you should have plenty of time to shop for those deals too. And you know, when you get those deals and do the work yourself, you end up with a place you can truely call home.

Not to say your area isn't safe, but there are some VERY safe neighborhoods in Chicago as well, so I have to give you a for that statement. But I really like your post because it is a reminder that towns that some may "pooh-pooh" are still decent places to live.

With your budget, you can live in nearly any part of the City you like. Their are very good CPS schools that are open enrollment to area residents. Some of these are Bell, Blaine, Burley, Coonley, Nettelhorst and Audobon. Francis Parker is a very popular private school in the Lincoln Park area of the city as well. There is a Lycee Francais and a British School if that's something that interests you.

This is the cps school locator tool to help determine attendance boundaries.

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